Finland vs United Kingdom

Finland is 1.4 times larger than United Kingdom — 338,145 against 243,610 km². United Kingdom is 12 times more populous than Finland — 69,487,000 against 5,646,436 people.

Side by side

Population density

United Kingdom is 17 times more densely populated than Finland — 285 against 17 people per km². Density is where area and population interact, and it often reverses the impression the headline figures give — a large country with a small population can feel emptier than a small crowded one by an enormous margin.

Practical differences

• They drive on opposite sides — Finland on the right, United Kingdom on the left.
• Different currencies: the Euro and the British pound.

Finland

Finland has roughly 188,000 lakes and 179,000 islands, more of each per unit area than any other country. About three-quarters of the land is forest, the highest proportion in Europe. A quarter of the country lies north of the Arctic Circle, where the sun stays up for weeks in summer and down for weeks in winter.

United Kingdom

Made up of Great Britain, the north-east of Ireland and around 6,000 smaller islands. No point in the UK is more than about 113 km from the sea. Ben Nevis, the highest point, is 1,345 m, which is modest — but the country has around 31,000 km of coastline once every inlet is counted.

Neutral facts only. Nothing here addresses politics, government, economics or which country is preferable in any respect — population is the one figure that dates, and it carries its year.